With this weekend’s raid over, I can officially say that I’m retired from raiding. Feels good. As soon as we got out of Hyjal last night, I ran to Stormwind to re-spec Ret, and I jumped into an EotS.

Weekend At a Glance

Saturday, we headed into SSC. It was a successful night, with just a few hiccups on trash on Tidewalker. Leo and FLK both went down in one shot - bosses we’ve had trouble perfecting in the past. We cleared 5/6 bosses with time to spare, and called it a bit early for the night.

Unfortunately, FLK didn’t drop a World Breaker for me to snag.

Sunday, we headed to TK. I thought we would be doing 3/4, but it turns out our goals were just A’lar and Void Reaver. I guess nobody wanted loot from Solarion. A’lar went down in two shots… woot!

Void Reaver was a breeze, too. We brought in an old friend who used to MT for our group before he jumped ship for a bigger guild. The two of us battled back and forth for aggro, and the poor third warrior never got to the top of the threat meter. There was a poor Enhancement Shaman that bit the dust, though… oops.

The highlight of the night, though, was the Seventh Ring of Tirisfalen. This is a great tanking ring. The other Warrior we brought in didn’t have it, despite moving on to bigger and better things with his guild. This was only time I’d ever seen it - but I only ran TK a few times. Scooped it up with a 95. Woot!

We finished Sunday by killing Rage in MH. We headed back to MH on Monday, and it was a sloppy, sloppy night. Anetheron went down after a few attempts, and Kaz’rogal eluded us. We got him to 1%. Boo.

Why No More Raiding?

Although I enjoy the raiding experience, I think it’s time to get out.

For one thing, the school year is about to begin and I’ll be teaching every day. While I can certainly play around my teaching schedule, I hate having a commitment hanging over me every weekend.

For another, I like weekends. It seems pretty common for a raiding guild to raid on the weekends, and ours was no different. Two of our days were Saturday and Sunday. At some point, you don’t want to give those up on a weekly basis.

These kinds of commitments also become increasingly burdensome when you fill an important position in the raid. A Rogue or a Mage can take a week off and everything should go fine. The AoE tank goes AWOL, and shit can hit the fan. Always makes for a fun “day after” when people complain about how badly the raid went…

Finally, it’s becoming increasingly futile. Sure, we could make a little progress. We might get one more boss in MH, and we might foray into BT. But we’re never going to get to Illidan or a real Sunwell Run. I doubt we’ll get Kael or Vashj down. Rather than bang my head against a wall from now to Lich King, it’s time to leave gracefully.

That leaves me with some time to focus on my other goals. I’ve gotten most of the mats for blacksmithing, except for the Thorium and a little Steel/Iron. My Alliance rep is coming along nicely, too. I had a nice defensive game last night, adding about 500 rep to my name.